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Let me introduce myself. I am Bjorn Kaag, founder of Argosonic and a new Brightlander since October 2018. Last week I had the pleasure to go to DevCon4 with a press badge, the yearly “family reunion” of Ethereum developers. My initial reason to join was to check out the community…

Cyber Peacekeeping Forces are building the world’s first blockchain based cyber incident reporting platform that will facilitate (inter)national public private partnership among law enforcement agencies, large organizations, SMBs and citizens. The platform streamlines cyber incident reporting, improves reporting time, reduces bureaucracy, saves costs, create more accurate statistics, aggregates and shares…

Responsible digital leadership comes with major ethical responsibility. The importance of being competitive should never overshadow this. “Being competitive doesn’t have to happen at the expense of responsible digital leadership, and vice versa. Creating a future vision and then setting this in motion is important for responsible digital leadership. The…

Responsible digital leadership comes with major ethical responsibility. The importance of being competitive should never overshadow this. “Digitization is having a major impact in the period that has now begun; people are starting to work more and more with personal data. This brings with it major responsibilities, including ethical ones.…

Responsible digital leadership comes with major ethical responsibility. The importance of being competitive should never overshadow this. “Although the CBS does not have commercial interests, all of the organizations that work with data have major ethical responsibilities. Part of this for us is the enormous quantity of security measures we…

How can organizations and people remain relevant in the digitized future? Managing Director of the Accenture Innovation Center for Smart Services, Mark Wiermans believes in solutions that put people first. He also believes in continuous evaluation. “What got you here, will not get you there” is your motto. Why? “Of…

The second Brightlands Techruption Incubation Program started at the Brightlands Smart Services Campus in Heerlen on Monday, March 26. During this event, together with corporates and knowledge institutes, nine carefully selected national and international start-ups did the kick off an intensive and ambitious innovation project. Co-creation as a key to…

The recent seminar of Techruption Consortium Blockchain (Heerlen, 9 March 2018) was centered around the question “what does it take to deploy and run a blockchain together?”. The first set of presentations shared learning experiences from the Consortium Blockchain use case. It was shown that both the technical deployment and the development…

Although the economic crisis was accompanied by deep troughs, it also provided new insight: Limburg had to become more independent. Technological ingenuity is part of this new direction, but competing with large clusters elsewhere is not, according to Deputy for Economic Affairs, Twan Beurskens. A conversation about the power of…

According to the latest Global Competitiveness report from the World Economic Forum, the Netherlands is in an excellent position to help shape the fourth industrial revolution. Peter Verkoulen, CEO of the Brightlands Smart Services Campus, sketches the ideal scenario for Limburg. NOW Life is change You grow as a person…

Co-founder of startup NestEgg Nathalie Drost may only be 23, but she just might be the ultimate underdog in the tech world. Ever on since she discovered the opportunities that blockchain technology offers, this world has been the object of her focus; she wants to use her expertise to reform…

The Blockchain & Ai Incubation program consists of an 9-week fulltime Venture Essentials bootcamp with a maximum of two years Venture Boost program. The first 9 weeks in the Incubator Essentials program are all about preparing the grounds for your startup’s development. Together, we will set the foundations for your success and connect you…

Four Euregional mobility challenges that demand smart technological solutions. 55 hackers, students and young professionals, from five different European countries. 48 hours. The second edition of the Hack4SmartServices hackathon has begun. Slaving away surrounded by cables, cans of Coke and colored lights. Saturday night, 11:59 p.m. A blue Mercedes van…

With the arrival of the latest technologies, privacy concerns among government and citizens are growing. Blockchain actually offers opportunities to better protect privacy, according to Techruption program manager Pieter Verhagen. Verhagen focuses on the development of a self-sovereign identity framework, among other things, on behalf of research institute TNO. This…

Now that the development of artificial intelligence and robotics is being called the fourth industrial revolution with increasing frequency, program leader Rudolf Müller concludes that the responsible integration of technology in society should be a priority. A list of his observations. Observation 1: the “big train” of substantial investments in…

In December we had two presentations on Blockchain. If you missed these sessions; you can look back here! Tune in and enjoy. Live Contracts Note: LegalThings One also presented during the Consortium blockchain meeting of Dec 1. We can ask for a more in-depth demo. Nonetheless, these presentations will have…

Hi Blockchain-gang, I would like to share with you what I have learned about Lightning Network recently. I would like to share with you what I have learned about Lightning Network recently. Also see internet discussions about those. My sketch below shows an example Lightning Network. Lightning Network is the combination of a…

True innovation starts with letting go. Letting go of how we think: shifting from a focus on capitalism to one on social relevance, from centralization to decentralization. And most of all, from preservation to experimentation. This is the theory of self-proclaimed troublemaker Vince Meens, whose responsibility it is to boost…

Worries have been mounting in the world of investors about the records being made on international financial markets. Concerned about a stock market bubble on the verge of bursting, these investors are looking for the signs that would point in this direction. Analysts have yet to see any however, and…

While the European Commission formulates a strategy for the use of artificial intelligence and is studying the complex issues related to this field, professor Tuomas Sandholm emphasizes the importance of investing in artificial intelligence. He believes there are considerable opportunities for growth, and countries that invest in the technology now…

Investing in artificial intelligence is a “fantastic strategy” for countries, even smaller ones such as the Netherlands, according to Professor Tuomas Sandholm who achieved global fame with Libratus, the first artificial intelligence program that beat four of the world’s best poker players in a game of no-limit Texas Hold’em. “The…

Anatomy of the blockchain: Technical fundamentals of blockchain technology with Christopher Georgen. Chris is head of strategy and financial engineering with fintech startup Topl, a blockchain-based platform for transparent impact investing in developing countries. Originally from the US, Chris obtained degrees in Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy from Rice University. During his time…

From blockchain obsession to start-up Saga: Matthew Neary is a pioneer in education and organizational forms Since “people eager to learn shouldn’t be limited by their wallets”, Matthew Neary and Eric Boby aim to launch a new peer-to-peer educational platform with their company Saga that will change this. This platform…

Peer to peer learning platform awarded €50,000 by European Commission Digital visionary SAGA selected as a winner in European Social Innovation Competition ‘Equality Rebooted’ addressing inequality in Europe. SAGA has been announced as one of three winners in the 2017 European Social Innovation Competition. Selected from a total of nearly…

Over 60 students, young professionals and experts from the Netherlands and abroad take part in the Inspirational Event, the official kick-off for the Hack 4 Smart Services Hackathon to be held on November 24, 25 and 26. Last night, the inspirational event was held for the hackathon smart services that…

The Techruption Consortium Blockchain is a permissioned blockchain based on Quorum technology and currently has six nodes for KPN, Rabobank, APG, Accenture, TNO and Brightlands Smart Services Campus. The goal of this blockchain is to acquire knowledge of and experience with settings up and running a collective blockchain. After all, sooner…

At least, not anywhere in the near future. Yes, this might sound controversial. And yes, there are good sources explaining why Bitcoin is a bubble and how it has to pop. But I’d like to challenge this. Not to say that you should invest all your money in Bitcoin (I’d like…

A virtual senior agent who supports call center staff with the aid of artificial intelligence. In studying the use case on this topic, research associate Mark Pluymaekers sees various types of challenges in this area, two of which are the use of dialects and privacy. At least eight variables play…

Frans van Ette is affiliated with the Dutch Blockchain Coalition, one of Techruption’s partners. The developments in blockchain are progressing at a rapid pace, resulting in many questions on the part of the government and business community. Frans tells us how he is trying to bring order to this new…

Jeroen Merks, self-anointed “Bitcoin King of the Tweakers”, may be found at Techruption on an almost daily basis. The road to Techruption was a rocky one. After winning a Hackathon, he abruptly dropped out of his Bio-Informatics study program to move to Heerlen. He has been working at the Brightlands…

Rabobank Nederland is joining the Techruption initiative at the Brightlands Smart Services Campus in Heerlen. The bank wants to be a trendsetter in the application of blockchain for its customers, and views Techruption as an interesting development partner to reinforce its ambitions. Co-creation Techruption is the first field lab in…

On Friday, March 3, 2017, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch Minister of Finance visited Techruption at the Brightlands Smart Services Campus. During his visit, the minister learned about the latest developments in the field of new technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence. Techruption is a new community at the Brightlands…